simplicity and composition

Jenifer madden 

i really how this illustrators work is simple, i also like the idea of including a line across the composition to reduce the vast negative space but is also used as part of the illustration, such as to show a surface level. 

though i have tried to make my concept strong, i think i have thought to much about it, perhaps over complicating/over working it so the idea is obvious which has maybe taken the fun/interest from it. 

not helping my enthusiasm about this idea, i also I'm not happy with the illustrative technique i have used, i don't think it is aesthetically pleasing and doesn't communicate the amount of time i actually spend making it - Annoying! 

to maintain interest, i aim to develop my concept by simplifying it down - , simple, effective, rememberable! 

potential repsonsive competiton brief

Submission of work is free!

The theme for 2015’s Exhibition and Annual : Tales of the CityThe focus of the Awards has always been one of narrative. Visual storytelling, whether sequential or single image, gives scope to the imagination and opens up possibilities beyond the present moment; what happened  before? What happens next?We run to the city to find fame and fortune, we run from the city to find peace and identity. Cities are made of steel and glass but also of cardboard; they create unity amongst people but also isolation; they are the crowning glories of man’s imagination but also of his greed.There are lost cities, mythical cities, cities of the imagination, cities of the future… Make an illustration that tells a new (true or fictional) Tale of the City.Open to all students, emerging and established illustrators.An academic and peer selection panel will assess the entries for inclusion in the exhibition and Annual.The selected work will be showcased at the Cheltenham Art Gallery & Museum and other venues, and published in the 2015 Cheltenham Illustration Awards Annual, which will be distributed to educators and publishers.The Awards will also be inviting work from established artists and illustrators whose work we admire and that contributes to the theme.The deadline for submitted entries is 1 June 2015.using same landscape different story from itbefore and after 

etched plates

peer progess review

points i have taken from the feedback 

• Narrow down idea choices and finalise 
• work on layout 
• can the concept be made clearer?
• is there any chance it could offend anybody?
• consider breadth of places the campaign could be displayed. 

what we want to get out of the feedback

1. is what we have come up with suitable for our audience ?
2. does the evidence on the boards meet the brief?
3. is the concept strong enough?
4. which idea is the strongest?
5. how could we improve?
6. is the visual direction appropriate to the tone?
7. is the media appropriate?
8. do my ideas show the mandatory requirements of the brief?
9. does my proposal communicate the appropriate concept?
10. can you understand the brief through the boards?
11. 
    

what i need to do:
add product information -health values
improve illustration by making sure the scenes are separate, yet still hold a comical feel.

colours could communicate health instead of having to physically write it

NEXT PEER REVIEW SESSION:pretty much put to bed! - the boards (3-5) professionally finished, responded to feedback - taking what i have got and extending it further (applying the improvements and advise)

discussed as group:

• more final resolved work - 
• specific idea rather than a number so you focus on improving just one
• look and experiment with a more professional/thought out layout 
• the board should be able to to inform someone of exactly what your doing, why and the brief without having to talk to you. (clarity) 
• spelling and grammer checking 
• earlier preparation - dont leave it to the day to print it out!
• more justification of media and colours etc
• actual production 

expectations (discussed as class):

• more resolved visual concepts
• more appropriate/considered visual aesthetics 
• more professional/clearer/clarified presentation board 
• clear timescale and deadlines 
• refined brief 
• production 

dont show development of ideas or contextual reference when making proposals to show to actual clients

presentation proposal boards for first crib

combing 2 scens idea

inspiration- like the idea of 2 scenes- i could develop this idea by combining scenes that are more relatable to the target market i.e a young professional on he's daily journey to work on the bus and a health conscious ballet dancer.   i want the 2 scenes to be more subtle without a deffinate change of scene like this I'mage. 

before drawing, i have played around with the layout of the 2 scenes for a poster format, keeping in mind the placement of the mandatory requirements propercorn ask to be shown - e.g logo

here i have tried experimenting with after effects to make my animation more interesting/more captivating as i found you loose interest half way though.

adding floating shapes - links into lewis carrolls geometric background

repeating image sequences at smaller scales 

adding text (question marks) to add to the concept and fill in space.

all of the above i have tried to play around with rotation, scale and opacity. 

after viewing it several times, i am really not happy with the end book animation, i feel its is really fast in some parts (opening of the book) and really slow in other places which makes you loose interest (the rabbits silhouettes being drawn into the book) i really feel my animation would benefit from doing this image sequence again.

what i would do differently: instead of showing the process of my colouring in the silhouettes i would use a scalpel and cut them out to reveal a dark coloured background which itself would create the rabbit shape, i feel this would take up less frames and therefore retain interest and it will happen quicker. 

using thicker asotate- problem: very hard to etch into, plastic is too soft to create shape etch. 

altering the printing bed and using scrim to wipe of excess ink - also adding oil to ink

changing paper stock 

progress review -groups

talk with fred about animation so far

i talked to fred about ow i felt my animation was lacking a constant interest as i felt after the fist few image sequences it became rather boring and the same to watch.
he suggested adding more animation sequences in however making these shorter/faster to keep the viewers eyes occupied. - even maybe using same image sequences i already have and changing the scale and speed of them and have them playing the the background of another animation.
he also suggested maybe taking in some textures to make the animation look less dull.

peer review

problems: plastic clear print to thick 

absolute print too thin, hard to etch into

talk to Eleanor about printing problems:

suggested talking to print technicians about altering the printing press so the thicker plate can go through easier

thinks i should try using normal plastic plate which isn't see though as this is the ideal plate for the process and might save all the rest of the problems i have encountered with using a see though plate.

list of things we need to do as a group: 

• realistically manage time 
• make sure we have everything blogged
• check tags on blogs
• set realistic goals
• put stuff on issues to make blog easier to understand 
• re read brief along side proposal to make sure your final works appropriate/relatable
• organise physical work
• consider resources to plan your time 
• documentation of final idea/resolutions
• make sure you have tested printing so you know what your resolution images will look like
• make sure there is definite evidence of original developmental in visual journal which links to final idea. - consider practicality of process 
• make sure we have contextual reference for both 

what i need to do: 

make copies of print and test out adding the colour 

experiment with adding colour through the printing press

say why i chose etching - thinking about the further and how i screen printing would be hard to do without equipment

choose and experiment with stock

make the BEST 5 prints rather than 6 rushed not so good ones.
think about judgment calls now

testing my prints now - relieved i tested this instead of going off for chrsitmas producing all my print plates and realising the printing plates are not right

DO A END OF YEAR EVALUATION NOW! - TO GIVE YOU A IDEA OF WHAT YOU WOULD IMPROVE ONE - AND CAN!! 

Problems with clear plastic plate

- thickness made it difficult to take through the printing press, this also meant that the paper i was printing onto tended to crease which left my final print look unprofessional.

when coming back to using the same plate, i found that the plate had itself creased/buckled slightly which left perminiant lines/cracks in the plate which inevitably showed up on every print i did after.

testing asotate:
though i have already etched into 3 of the 6 prints ready to take through the drypoint process i was not happy with the results i got from using the thick clear plastic plate. so i have tried to think of other clear plate material i could use to etch onto. i did a quick test etch onto a piece of asotate, i did originally think of this material to etch onto, but i thought it would maybe be to thin to withstand being etched onto and also be to thin to take through the print press to leave a impression, however when testing this out i found that it worked fine! it also was a lot easier to wipe away the excess ink, unlike the other plate.

adding programe infomation

like the idea of combining the visual animation and program information together to give them a stronger concept and link. 

as the book i was using already had a previous book title on, i had to unload each frame that showed the front cover and edit out the information. this was very time consuming. when adding the new text, i has to save the book each time i added a letter so i could upload it as a image sequence so it would gradually animate the information appearing on the book. - again very time consuming!!! 

                         

all image sequences put together for animation

• rapidly loose interest in the animation- though i took time in dragon frame trying to capture each stage of the moving image, (e.g the girl with rabbit ears) 

Book image sequence 

though i spent a long time on this image sequence, there was too many faults in it and therefore i was not happy including it in my final animation when i knew it could be done better. for example - because i was trying to show the book opening on its own, i tried to show a number of pages turning, however this was very difficult and was not consistent when flicking from page to page in the stop motion. when drawing the rabbits on the page to show the imagination, i used to many frames to show the process which after a while was a bit boring to watch. 

printing first print

because i used a clear plate to etch onto instead of the usual plastic plate it was harder to remove the ink, i adding a little oil to help the process however not to must as i didn't want to loose the ink from the lines. 

i removed as much of the ink as i could and took the print through the printing press, because the plate is thicker than the usual plate there was a resistance was stronger, this was quite risky as the plate could have snapped, next time i will see if theres a way to increase the gap in printing press.
unfortunately i am quite disappointed in the final print. i feel because i didn't remove all the ink i wanted to, the print looks quite dirty, also because of the strong resistance the printing press applied all of pressure on the paper which made it crease slightly.

adding ears

project proposals and presentation boards

DISTINLED DOWN 3 to 5 A3 presentation boards based on the feedback
a proposal/or actual thing
bring developmental work that i have not included into the boards

effectively presenting the development, product, context, - tells the story of the brief - how you see the brief existing in the real world, what i feel is important
clear concise, effective

digital presentation

do you need to create an account/profile?
download any submission details/forms?
check mandatories/deliverables
identift submission deadlines
clarify submission process and formats
prepare submisson as directed


showing idea not the product -visual concept
come up with ways of visually explaining you idea without it physically being there - i.e. billboards

what do you need to demonstrate?
prove that theres a market for your repsonce
that you no the concerns
the context - how it would work


creative compromise - you won't do everything you want to do - except it

prodcution is a serious chunk out of your time
is the product essential to the concept?
a imagineer for someone else
photoshop in - omunicate scale etc

IMPACT- start at the end!
fisrt board should instantly tell the client what it is you've produced! - your idea
wants the product, whats the range- (website, social media, billboard, bus stops publishing, point of sales, train carriages) , how is it distributed
audience, function, context 

THINK BEFORE YOU DO! PLAN BEFORE YOU ACT!
QUESTION EVERYTHING THAT I HAVE SAID!

a baord is classed as a image - if asked to submit image




The Deadline for Submissions is 11.59pm GMT on Thursday 19th March 2015

All submissions are made digitally. The Awards Entry uploader will be live in January 2015.

After the Deadline for Entries in March the judging process takes place over April and May, with six weeks set aside for our partners to carefully look through their respective entries. 

Creatively bring to life our ethos of 'Done Properly'

THINK OF A NUMBER OF THINGS THE TARGET MARKET WILL DO AND HOW THEY CAN BE DONE PROPERLY

idea Mock-up

using scenarios propercorns demographic would find themsleves in, i have experimented with replacing common objects you would find in the scenarios and have replaced them with the propercorn product. e.g a girl lifting weights at the gym -weights replaced with propercorn packets. 

Creative advertising research

Using 3d, physical objects and illustrating around it to create a concept. 

this is really appropriate for my brief as it is creatively using the product. i could elaborate on this by illustrating  things related to my concept incorporating the popcorn - e.g. replacing wheels on a bile for popcorn to illustrate the on-the-go, health conscious demographic.